Biofuels?

http://physorg.com/news121614826.html

"Turning native ecosystems into .farms. for biofuel crops causes major carbon emissions that worsen the global warming that biofuels are meant to mitigate, according to a new study by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy. The work will be published in Science later this month and will be posted online Thursday, Feb. 7."

Energy and conservation fads are just as unhelpful as any other type of fad. The reality is that ethanol's role in America's energy future, if it has one, is best minimal. It's not "green".

There is no free lunch in the energy source spectrum, no silver bullets, nothing "too cheap to meter." There is only one solution, the one no one is willing to do, and that's simply to use less power.

Ohio, 2004

Fraud, disenfranchisment, voter suppression, recount obstruction, and vote machine tampering...

http://ohioelection2004.com/evidence.htm?1

Only in America! Yee-haw!

The Matrix

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/01/vr-hypothesis.html

"The idea that the universe is a giant virtual reality simulation is a well explored theme in science fiction. Films such as The Matrix have used this premise to great effect.

"Now a New Zealand scientist is saying that physicists should seriously explore the idea. Brian Whitworth at Massey University says that it is perfectly reasonable to conjecture that "the world is an information simulation running on a three-dimensional space-time screen". Deciding whether or not this is true is a matter for science to resolve."

Is the universe a virtual reality simulation? And should this idea idea be seriously explored by experimental physics? If the universe were running on a Windows box, it would certainly explain a lot...

Professionalism Lost (On a Personal Note)

I've been a programmer since the late 1980s. And there isn't a day that goes by anymore when I don't think about how much I'd like to get out of this field - and Windows is the reason. But, no, not Windows as such, rather Windows technical users and programmers. An entire industry has its collective head up its ass for no good reason. I'm sick of it. Technology has been held back 20 years because of this crap. If it can be THAT BAD, and no one notices, then it is truly hopeless.

I'm a systems programmer. I've worked in a scientific research environment, designed large scale telecommunications systems, and work in the financial sector on very large database design and operations. I'm considered successful. I'm respected by peers as a leader in technology. My current job is at a company that creates software applications as a product, for Windows. I've learned from working in this job I have now that there is an entire technology economy, of which I'm now part, cranking out the same pointless re-invented wheels over and over for the past decade. Applications. GUI applications. A tiny, tiny little world of tiny, tiny applications, for tiny, tiny minds, repeated, so far, endlessly. The "skill" in this work is not engineering, but learning to work around the faults of a crappy O/S. One can't even speak to Windows programmers about what it's like to work with an O/S not designed by a marketing department, one designed for things to make sense. They don't know what you're talking about. The genius of Microsoft was convincing an entire generation that flaws, reboots, crashes, and destroyed data were normal for computers.

I'm reminded of the incredibly complext models of the solar system that were created by true believers to make things "work out", that is match observations, in the face of their insane insistence that the sun circled around the Earth. It's that bad. And that's my job.

Links

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/13/science_biofuel_reports/

Stepped-up ethanol production in the US is mostly likely harmful to the environment. No surprise there. The one and only thing that will help our CO2 problems is the one thing no one will do: use less energy.

* * *

http://www.plastic-surgeon-directory.com/extreme-plastic-surgery.html

"While the most common reason people decide to get plastic surgery is to improve a part of their body, or change something they don't like, some take plastic surgery to the next level. What follows are some of the most interesting, bizarre, and extreme examples of plastic surgery by individuals who have non-traditional surgery goals."

Strange.

* * *

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/highschool/02/13/female.official.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

"The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary's Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.

"The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy's beliefs."

This could only happen in places like Iran. Or Kansas...

* * *

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/world/middleeast/13contractors.html?ex=1360645200&en=bb3113084a2187a5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

"But not long after the ambush, Ms. Kineston said, she was sexually assaulted by another driver, who remained on the job, at least temporarily, even after she reported the episode to KBR, the military contractor that employed the drivers. Later, she said she was groped by a second KBR worker. After complaining to the company about the threats and harassments endured by female employees in Iraq, she was fired."

* * *

http://www.abcactionnews.com/entertainment/story.aspx?content_id=e5b7a814-9a8e-4e9f-8479-2381058abdd8&hahah%20

"Britney Spears stunned sales staff at a Betsey Johnson store in Sherman Oaks, California on Sunday when she stepped out of a fitting room completely naked.

"A day before Spears' bizarre antics outside a Los Angeles courthouse cost her visitation rights to her young son for a month, the singer was stripping in front of shoppers."

Officially insane... I've started to here "Britney" used as a verb for a pathetic emotional decline, as in "Having a Britney Spears". It's funny, in a sad sort of way. Or maybe it's just sad. Or maybe it's not even that.

Nevermind. Wait for the feature film version.

Downside Risks

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afhqEZYKpMJw&refer=home

"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke indicated that policy makers are prepared to lower interest rates further to revive the economy as banks make it more expensive to borrow.

"The Fed "will act in a timely manner as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks," Bernanke said in the text of prepared remarks to a Senate Banking Committee hearing today."

Downside risks? Did he say downside risks?! Oh my God! No one told me about downsides!

Sell!!!

Damn Lies and Statistics

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/C/COLLEGE_STUDENTS_DOWNLOADING?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-01-23-09-06-05

"In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry's domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have access to high-bandwidth networks on campus.

...

"But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a "human error" in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss."

Wine

http://www.decanter.com/news/171669.html

"A regional manager for Australian drinks giant Fosters says he was forced to destroy two bottles of Penfolds Grange at Melbourne airport due to security restrictions.

"Neil Grant, who is a southern region general manager for Fosters, whose portfolio includes Penfolds, was travelling to the UK with bottles of 1980 and 1982 Grange when he was told the wines would have to be confiscated."

$800 in wine destroyed as a terrorist threat to safe air travel. People are stupid.

Killing Children in The Name of Stupidity

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/01/shawn.html

"A hemophilic boy in Pennsylvania bleeds to death over a period of two days from a small cut on his foot. An Indiana girl dies after a malignant tumor sprouts from her skull and grows so enormous that it.s nearly the size of her head. A boy in Massachusetts succumbs to a bowel obstruction. (His cries of pain are so loud that neighbors are forced to shut their windows to block out the sound.)"

"None of these children benefit from the readily-available medical treatments that might save their lives, or at least mitigate their suffering. Because the tenets of their parents. religious faiths mandate it, their ailments are treated by prayer rather than medical science. The results are tragic."

People are stupid.

Bible

http://www.channel3000.com/news/14917600/detail.html

"He took the Bible and he said, 'I'm going to do this because I can. I'm going to do something that your stupid, little minds aren't going to be able to comprehend and he took the Bible and started ripping out pages."

...

"Officials said that ripping up a Bible is constitutionally protected, adding the punishment has nothing to do with the student's Freedom of Speech demonstration."

...

"In a separate incident, following the punishment, three Parker High Students wore T-shirts asking for the student in question to be brought back after a punishment was levied against him. School officials made those students change clothes."

Mitt Out

So Romney's out...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/02/romney_considering_dropping_ou.html

"I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney said. "If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win."

"And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," he said.

Wow! So Clinton and Obama are with The Terrorists(tm)? I had no idea!

Conservative politicians must think people are pretty stupid... Oh wait, they are. Nevermind.

Transparency

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/12/vice_presidents_office_is_not.html

What the President is claiming, Sen. Whitehouse said, is that "I don't have to follow my own rules, and if I break them, I don't have to tell you that I am breaking them."

Upgrading From Vista to XP

Now here's a handy Windows how-to...

http://dotnet.org.za/codingsanity/archive/2007/12/14/review-windows-xp.aspx

"I have finally decided to take the plunge. Last night I upgraded my Vista desktop machine to Windows XP, and this afternoon I will be doing the same to my laptop."

Must Read

http://www.slate.com/id/2165033/?sid13

"The actual story of the imposture is almost embarrassing to read, and almost embarrassingly easy to uncover. (It has been best told by Dr. Fawn Brodie, whose 1945 book No Man Knows My History was a good-faith attempt by a professional historian to put the kindest possible interpretation on the relevant "events.") In brief, Joseph Smith announced that he had been visited (three times, as is customary) by an angel named Moroni. The said angel informed him of a book, "written upon gold plates," which explained the origins of those living on the North American continent as well as the truths of the gospel. There were, further, two magic stones, set in the twin breastplates Urim and Thummim of the Old Testament, that would enable Smith himself to translate the aforesaid book. After many wrestlings, he brought this buried apparatus home with him on September 21, 1827, about eighteen months after his conviction for fraud. He then set about producing a translation."

Get your own copy of "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" by Christopher Hitchens here:

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0446579807/

People are stupid. Read about it.

Rabble

This is why stock go up and down mindlessly. Take a look at this chatter on Microsoft, Yahoo! (Microyoo) and Google.

http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance.694653/browse_thread/thread/ccadd57434ecfc96

Half the people obviously don't know what they're talking about, and the other half don't know what they're talking about either. You could maybe piece together one interesting remark out of the whole thing.

This is not only true of the peanut gallery though, it's also true of the people that run most companies and make these decisions. None of them know what they're doing really.